28 bullet-riddled bodies dumped in, near Baghdad

June 13, 2005

BAGHDAD, IRAQ — The military announced the killing of four more U.S. soldiers on Sunday, pushing the American death toll past 1,700, and police found the bullet-riddled bodies of 28 people--many thought to be Sunni Arabs--buried in shallow graves or dumped streetside in Baghdad.

The bodies were discovered as the Shiite-led government pressed to open disarmament talks with insurgents responsible for a relentless campaign of violence, which has taken on ominous sectarian overtones with recurring tit-for-tat killings.

A crackdown by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and offensives carried out by U.S. forces in western Iraq have had only a temporary effect in blunting the cycle of carnage in which at least 940 people have died since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his government six weeks ago.

Al-Jaafari spokesman Laith Kuba said many militant groups were reaching out to the government, seeking a place in the political process. He urged them to lay down their arms.

Some insurgents are motivated to end their resistance, Kuba argued, by the election of an Iraqi government which put the U.S. presence in the background, although its military is still 140,000 strong.